Samsung Galaxy S9 looks set to include improved facial recognition technology, the company has teased.

The South Korean technology company dropped the hint during the announcement of its latest custom smartphone processor, Exynos 9 Series 9810.

Alongside the Qualcomm SnapDragon 845, the new processor is widely-tipped to power the latest generation of Samsung smartphones.

As a result, the features of the Exynos 9 chipset offer clues to what customers can expect from the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+.

Samsung highlights the Exynos’ ability to execute “realistic face-tracking filters” as well as “stronger security when unlocking a device with one’s face”.

If that sounds familiar, it’s likely because these are two of the biggest features of the all-new iPhone X.

Apple’s new flagship handset ditches the fingerprint scanner in favour of advanced facial recognition courtesy of its TrueDepth camera system.

It also uses facial tracking to mirror the users’ facial movements for its animoji characters.

By the sounds of it, Samsung’s new handset will be capable of very similar functionality.

According to Samsung, “This cutting-edge technology allows the processor to accurately recognise people or items in photos for fast image searching or categorisation, or through depth sensing, scan a user’s face in 3D for hybrid face detection. 

“By utilising both hardware and software, hybrid face detection enables realistic face-tracking filters as well as stronger security when unlocking a device with one’s face.

“For added security, the processor has a separate security processing unit to safeguard vital personal data such as facial, iris and fingerprint information.”

A number of early rumours had pointed to advanced facial recognition as one of the headline features of the upcoming Galaxy S9.

This is something Samsung has toyed with before, the Galaxy S8 already boasts a face scanning feature.

However this authentication system is currently powered by the front-facing camera, which makes it much less secure than Face ID.

Samsung is pretty upfront about the failings of its current system.

On the Galaxy S8 product page, Samsung says that “face recognition is less secure than pattern, PIN, or password” – something that could easily change with the hardware upgrade purportedly scheduled for the Galaxy S9.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 also offers Iris Scanning, fingerprint scanning, a numerical PIN or alphanumeric passcode to unlock the phone.

Elsewhere, the Exynos 9 Series 9810 boasts four powerful, performance-focused cores, capable of hitting speeds of 2.9GHz, paired with four efficiency cores designed to extend battery life when less grunt is required.

“With an architecture that widens the pipeline and improves cache memory, single-core performance is enhanced two-fold and multi-core performance is increased by around 40 percent compared to its predecessor,” Samsung claims.

Vice President of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics, Ben Hur said: “The Exynos 9 Series 9810 is our most innovative mobile processor yet, with our third-generation custom CPU, ultra-fast gigabit LTE modem and, deep learning-enhanced image processing.

“The Exynos 9810 will be a key catalyst for innovation in smart platforms such as smartphones, personal computing and automotive for the coming AI era.”

The Exynos 9 Series 9810 is currently in mass production.

The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are widely-tipped to launch in the coming weeks.